Not Too Bad
by shadowymind
Summary: Sakura's parents sold her away. Will everyone at her new job accept her? What happens when she sees the unexpected happen involving one of the people there? How will that person help her in her predicament? Eventual sasusaku
1. Come Back!

A/N: Hey everybody! My 4th fanfic and counting! For all of you people who are fans of my other story, You Came? You Went? I Hate You!, after I upload the chapter to this story, I'll try to get right to work on chapter 10 for that other story, so be on the lookout for it. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this first chapter! :D

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters. I only own the characters I make up for this fanfic.

"Otou-san! Okaa-san! Onegai! Don't leave me here!!" a young girl wailed as she chased after the departing figures of her parents.

There was a huge iron gate separating them. Her parents on one side who were beginning their journey home, and her on the other beginning her new life in the hell in which they had sold her into.

She fell at the foot of the gate, her pink hair, along with her freshly shed tears, were being blown back by the howling wind. The rain cascaded violently, making her best dress soiled with the dampness and the mud which was starting to stick. Nonetheless, she stuck her bare arm between two of the iron bars, trying to grab hold of her parents' faraway figures. It was either to pull them back or it was either to try and keep hold of them and hope that the force would be great enough to pull her away from the horrendous place.

She stayed in that position for what seemed like forever. Although all of her efforts were futile, she didn't seem to want to give up. It was then that her new "supervisor" approached her sobbing form.

"Sakura, onegai, calm down," her supervisor said in a soft voice. "Everything will be fine," she reassured.

Sakura seemed to ignore her comments and sat on the rock hard ground beneath the pouring rain. She kept on sitting there in silence and had a long thousand-yard stare while her supervisor waited for her reply.

"Well, we better get going inside if we both don't want to get ill," her supervisor said, losing hope that Sakura would ever speak another word to her.

"Ne, Tsunade ojou-sama," Sakura said out of the blue.

Tsunade, which happened to be the supervisor, swerved around, startled, and faced Sakura. "Nani? What is it?"

"Th-they're," Sakura stuttered, "not coming back… are they?" She turned to stare at Tsunade, waiting for her one question to be answered.

"No, Sakura… they're not," Tsunade answered sadly, seemingly hesitant to answer the young girl.

A shadow fell over Sakura, and her pink locks gradually covered her eyes, strand by strand.

"I see," she responded. Then she stood up, dusted off her soiled dress, and tried to shake out the water in her short hair. "I understand. I'll fulfill my proper purpose here."

Tsunade smile a smile full of pity towards her, then nodded. She then led Sakura towards the building that sat behind those iron gates, the building of Sakura's new life.

They walked through the cement path that led from the iron gates to the building, up the tall, cold steps, and into the building, where their steps squeaked with every step on the green, marble floor.

There was a door at the end of the hallway labeled "Office" and Sakura assumed they were headed that way. Throughout the journey through the hall, the girls who worked there seemed to stare at Sakura with piercing eyes. Thankfully, they didn't seem sharp enough to be able to want to kill her.

Sakura tried to escape her stares by looking at Tsunade. Not for _that_ reason. It was because she was the only person in the whole place that Sakura new that gave her at least some comfort.

Tsunade looked to be a strong woman. She looked to be in her twenties' or thirties', but she sounded as though she was about fifty. She had on a pink kimono with orange flowers on it and orange silk on the inside. The obi was purple and so was the silk on the ends of the sleeves. She also held an empty sake bottle in her right hand.

"_You mean she was drinking when my parents sold me to her?!!!! What have they done?!!!" _Sakura thought with horror to herself.

When they arrived at the office, the sight in there didn't ease Sakura's thoughts in the least. There were empty sake bottles scattered about the office, the smell of cigarettes lingered in the air, and papers were all over the place.

Sakura seemed to be unable to take her eyes off from the scene and was unusually speechless.

Since she was so transfixed, she almost didn't notice that Tsunade had tossed a pile of pink cloth towards her. Although, either way, she had caught them just before they were about to hit the ground.

"Now," Tsunade instructed, "go across the hall and get changed into those. Then, come back here for further instructions."

"Hai, Ojou-sama," Sakura replied and made her way into the room that Tsunade had told her to get changed in.

A few minutes later, she was in a baby pink kimono. It was decorated with white leaves and a darker shade of pink silk was on the inside and at the end of the sleeves. The obi was scarlet-colored.

Sakura took her worn-out dress and returned to the office. There she saw Tsunade talking with somebody… somebody familiar…

"Ino-pig?" Sakura asked with disbelief.

"Forehead-girl?" Ino asked with the same tone of voice.

"Hm? You two know eachother?" Tsunade questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Hai," Ino answered excitedly, "we're childhood friends!"

"Well, I guess you two have some catching up to do, so you can go. And show Sakura around, Ino," Tsunade said.

"Hai Ojou-sama!" both stated simultaneously, and with a quick bow, both left the office.

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A/N: OMG!!! What now? What will Ino and Sakura talk about? Will the other girls accept Sakura? What adventures await her next time? R & R


	2. Unlucky? Possibly Not

A/N: Hi hi everyone! I hope you're liking the story so far! Trust me, the story won't be as wrong as it seems after you've read this chapter… or the next, depending how far I get with this chapter. XD So enjoy everyone and please, PLEASE send in some reviews!!!!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its past or existing characters.

Recap:

"Hm? You two know eachother?" Tsunade questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Hai," Ino answered excitedly, "we're childhood friends!"

"Well, I guess you two have some catching up to do, so you can go. And show Sakura around, Ino," Tsunade said.

"Hai Ojou-sama!" both stated simultaneously, and with a quick bow, both left the office.

End Recap:

As they walked through the long hallway back to where everyone was, Ino exclaimed, "Oh my Kami! It's been so long Sakura-chan!"

"Hai. The last time I saw you was right before you left our village when we were 10 years old," Sakura answered with a grin.

"Mmhm," Ino replied, "it was lucky we got to meet again."

Sakura started to giggle, but it soon faded. Then she said solemly, "Demo it's pretty odd that we met here… that you were here all this time without me even knowing. So you've been here 5 years, huh?"

Sakura stated the last part with an uneasy and shaky tone.

Ino sensed this and replied, "Hai… demo strange thing is, I've never gotten a customer my whole stay here, which is pretty lucky of me, I suppose. I guess the guys that come here go for more _mature_ women, ne?"

The joking way that Ino had said that caused Sakura's face to break out in a smile and sent her mind laughing.

"Well, ano, I guess it's enough chit-chat for now. I better show you around and tell you the rules and all that other stuff," Ino suddenly remembered.

Off they were on the tour of the building. Ino had told her the detailed structure of it all, but Sakura only decided to remember what was necessary, despite her love of memorizing information. The things she stored in her memory were the location of the bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchen, various tips to not get the older women or Tsunade angry with you, and that you had to do all your own laundry for there were no servants at all.

The last rule is what made Sakura thank her lucky stars that she had brought her worn out dress with her instead of leaving it in the changing room, as she had originally planned.

With everything finally being shown and said, Ino proclaimed, "Well, I guess we better go to the gathering room. Hinata's waiting there."

Hearing Hinata's name, Sakura froze in her tracks. "H-hinata?" she stammered, "Sh-she's been working here t-too?"

The reason for her stammering was that she had always remembered Hinata as shy and conservative. To picture her working in a place like this was simply unthinkable.

"Daijoubu, daijoubu," Ino reassured with a wink, "she's like me. We've both done our best to make sure we never got any customers."

After hearing that, Sakura let out the breath she had been holding in, relief washing over her for she had found out that her two good friends hadn't lost their innocence yet. Although, she couldn't get rid of the growing knot in her stomach, for fear of getting a customer herself.

"Ne, Sakura-chan, we better go now," Ino reminded her, sending Sakura out of her trance.

With a quick smile and nod from Sakura, the two were off.

However, unknown to them, a figure was watching them, hidden in the shadows. The figure's eyes followed their movements, but the eyes were especially focused on her. Her and her pink kimono.

"Tch," the figure sounded, and walked unnoticed to a room across the hall from where he/she was standing.

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"Hinata!" Ino called out to the lone girl sitting in the corner. Her silky black hair was down to her waist, which was as long as Ino's except Ino's hair was tied in a partial bun while the rest of her hair hung freely.

Hinata stood up to greet her friend and was shocked to see that Sakura was there as well.

"Hinata-chan! Long time no see!!" Sakura exclaimed.

"H-hai, Sakura-san. It sure has b-been a while," Hinata replied in that unchanging shy way of hers.

"Hinata-chan," Sakura laughed, "I already told you five years ago to call me Sakura-_chan_ instead of Sakura-_san_."

"H-hai Sakura-chan," Hinata said with a slight smile.

The rest of the time, the three friends sat down and did a lot catching up. That was until…

"Minna! Minna! There's a customer!! Take your places!!" a girl who too worked there announced as she ran into the room.

"N-nani?!!" Sakura screamed nervously as everyone stood to line up.

Ino put a comforting hand on Sakura's arm and said, "Daijoubu, forhead-girl. Remember what I told you before. They always go for the older women."

"Hai," Hinata agreed, "B-besides, we're standing in the back, so there's a small chance they'll pick us."

Sakura smiled at their attempts to put her at ease, but she couldn't help but feel uneasy.

"_I just hope you guys are right,"_ Sakura thought, here heart pounding faster and faster.

Just then a big, burly man walked in, accompanied by Tsunade. He had an unruly black beard with a cigarette in his mouth. He took out the cigarette and smiled, which revealed that he had yellow teeth. The sight caused Sakura to fight to hold down her breakfast.

The customer decided to take a few minutes to inspect every single one of the thirty women who stood in the room, excluding Tsunade of course.

With each girl inspected, one by one, it got closer and closer to Sakura. Slowly but surely.

Sakura decided to shut her eyes and clear her mind for the moment to free herself from this torture. Although by the time she had reopened her eyes, she saw his face, inches away from hers. Smiling an evil smile.

It appeared his mind was made up and her fate was sealed. He was about to say that he had chosen, but his mouth was only halfway open when…

"No!"

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A/N: CLIFFIE!!!!! Who was the figure standing in the shadows watching Ino and Sakura? Who was the one who interfered with Sakura's unlucky fate?!!!


End file.
